1. The Field of the Invention
In one aspect, the present invention pertains to a safety device for use with an electrical circuit breaker
2. The Prior Art
There has been a continuing increase in concern for safety in industrial settings, such as all phases of manufacturing, in recent years. This concern has prompted the promulgation of many federal and state laws and regulations which are intended to improve occupational safety. In order to comply with those regulations concerning electrical power, it is now required that there must be a way to positively prevent unintentional restoration of electrical power to machinery which is either not operating or is down for service. The clear purpose of these regulations is to prevent serious injuries or death by the inadvertent supply of electrical power to or the starting of machinery which is assumed to be at least temporarily inactive or disabled. At least one of these regulations specifies that machinery be turned off and the power switch be locked in the off position.
There have been a number of devices proposed to fulfill the above discussed ends. Some of these are in the form of flags or tags which are to be placed on the handle of a circuit breaker which is to be disabled. However, these have the obvious disadvantage of being too easily removed, which could happen through inadvertence and/or oversight, and create an unintended dangerous situation. Another popular solution to this need involves rods and/or bars which pass through or engage apertures in the handles of circuit breakers. These types of solutions have the obvious disadvantage of requiring a certain type of circuit breaker, namely one with an appropriately sized and directed hole in the handle, in order to function. Use of such devices might prove to be extremely expensive in requiring either replacement of circuit breakers with one having appropriate handles or boring holes in the handle of the existing breakers. This latter case would require dismounting of the circuit breaker from the box and circuit in order to safely perform the boring operation. A further approach to the problem is to have a device which is adapted to be mounted adjacent a column of circuit breakers with circuit breaker engaging pins selectively mounted therein to engage and disable the selected circuit breaker.